Help Purchasing an Ink Printer

[Garen]

For my next printer purchase, I want to be able to print up to 13x19 color as well as grayscale. My budget is $1000 or less. HP 7000 is one printer below $200. Epson has a few printers below $1000. I can live with the inconvenience of replacing gray ink cartridges into color cartridge slots. Seems to me that the print driver is just an important factor as the printer itself for grayscale work. Printing gray tones will be a first experience for me. I know that a higher priced printer does not necessarily produce the best print. Any advice or recommendation is welcome. I will also appreciate if one can point me to a website that covers the subject. Thanks. Garen

[Donald Miller]

I own both Epson and Canon. I really appreciate the prints that the Canon Pro 9500 Mk II produces.

[Brian Ellis]

I've owned four Epson printers over a period of about 10-12 years, an 1160, 1280, 2200, and presently the 3800 that I've had for about four years. I also still have the 1280 which is about 8 or so years old and is still in use. All have performed almost flawlessly.

Epson probably has 90% or more of the higher-end photo printer market. So when you have a question or problem or just want some information you'll find plenty for any Epson photo printer you buy, less so for other brands. I'd therefore suggest buying the best 13" Epson printer you can afford which probably is the R2880 for about $700. Throw in QTR (www.harrington.com) for another $50 if it's black and white printing in which you're interested plus some time learning how to print digitally you'll soon be making some gorgeous prints.

[Gem Singer]

Assuming that you are in the USA, check out the HP Photosmart PRO B8850 printer.

It has all the features that you mentioned and sells for under $500, with free shipping.

www.atlex.com

[SW Rick]

Look at the Epson 3880, with rebates. While a 17-inch printer, it is not much bigger than an Epson 2880/3000. The build quality and components are higher quality than the "prosumer". I've owned 4-5 "smaller" Epsons, Canons and HP, and the 3880 yields better prints with the canned profiles. It has excellent Advanced Black and White mode, which does an excellent job for B&W. There were 2 slightly used ones in Seattle a week or so ago, at a dealer, for $500. Send me a PM if you want details.

[Professional]

I owned 2 Epson printers in the past about 12-15 years ago, they both did a great job, then i didn't buy any another ink printer except HP office-jet which was bad for photos but i used for my college[university] work as scan and print and so, but then about 3 years or 2 i can't remember i purchased Epson 3800, this printer changed my printing world, perfect prints for colors and B&W, very happy with it, now the only printer i want to buy is Epson 24" or 44".

[James Hilton]

Assuming that you are in the USA, check out the HP Photosmart PRO B8850 printer.

It has all the features that you mentioned and sells for under $500, with free shipping.



The B8850 was discounted almost a year ago now.

Can you hold out for the new EPSON Stylus Photo R3000? How much does a Epson 3880 go for in the US these days? I highly recommend it.

[Gem Singer]

James,

The HP B9180 was discontinued last year.

The HP B8850 is still available in the USA.

See: www.atlex.com

Atlex is a good place to purchase ink cartridges for HP, as well as Epson printers.

BTW, the OP is looking for a 13" printer, not a 17" printer.

[James Hilton]

James,

The HP B9180 was discontinued last year.

The HP B8850 is still available in the USA.



See http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/us/en/sm/WF09a/18972-18972-3328063.html?jumpid=in_r2515_us/en/smb/psg/psc404redirect-ot-xx-xx-/chev/ and http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/us/en/sm/WF10a/18972-18972-3328063-15100-3328076-3380537.html

HP's own USA website lists the printer as discontinued, I guess items being sold today are just old stock.

[Tom Monego]

Having done inkjet printing for 10 years or so, do yourself a favor and buy a printer with larger cartridges. The Epson 3880 is in this category and can be found, refurbs, used for under $1000. B&W is good if not excellent, the only two negative are that it doesn't take roll paper and the longest print it will make is 38 inches. I bought a Canon iPF5000 instead of a 3800, this is also an excellent printer.
The real cost of an inkjet printer is in it's operation not the initial cost. Larger cartridge prints cost significantly less to run and you don't have to change ink all the time, just a better buy.
I used an HP B9180 for 3 years, also a nice printer with larger cartridges than other 13 inch printers. But the ink cost the same as an Epson and the HP software was very intrusive, I finally stripped all but the essentials off my computer.

Tom

[drew.saunders]

I used to have an HPB9180 and now have an Epson R2880. The HP was junk: lots of problems with the heads, lots of wasted ink, and a critical fault that showed up just a few weeks after the warranty. The fault likely existed before the end of the warranty, but the software never warned me. It was so bad, and their support so obnoxious, that, even though HP is a neighbor of mine here in Palo Alto, I doubt I'll ever buy another one of their products.

The Epson has been fine for 2 years now, I've only had stripes from head strike once (after I shut the printer off and didn't print for about 2 months) and one cleaning cycle fixed that problem.

There's a $100 rebate on the R2880 until April 2nd, making it $490, and there'll probably be another $100 or $150 rebate program shortly after that one expires.

The R3000 looks nice too, if you can wait, and it's listed at $850 for pre-order, so it fits your budget. It'll have larger capacity cartridges than the 2880, and will let you load both the photo black and matte black cartridges. The cartridges stay put and have tubes to the printing head, so when it changes between the blacks, it has to get rid of the ink in the tube, so there's a fair bit of ink wasted when you change blacks, but you don't have to change out cartridges.

[Preston]

I have an older R2400 that makes gorgeous prints. It loves ink, though, so the cost is high. Going forward, I will still go with Epson, but I would get a 3880 or equivalent, because I want to make prints larger than 13 inch. If I wanted to stay with 13 inch wide, I would go with the new 3000.

--P

[tom thomas]

Garen, you mentioned wanting to print up to 13X19 color. There is an Epson Workforce 1100 printer right now at Epson.com in the Clearance Center for $106 plus free ground shipping.

It does 13X19 prints. I've been drooling over it, have read specs, lots of reviews on the internet. It seems to be real good at color prints even at 13X19.

I know it's cheap but Epson printers are real good performers. My first was an Esc/2 years ago. I passed it on to my son when I got a 220. He used it for his college printing, beautiful stuff. He loves the 220 I gave him later, sparkling prints.

Ink isn't cheap but still better than having to drive somewhere to get enlargements done, waiting for days, then not always liking the quality of the print.

Tom

[neil poulsen]

. . . Seems to me that the print driver is just an important factor as the printer itself for grayscale work. . . .

QTR is an excellent RIP for gray scale that bypasses the driver. You have all kinds of control over print color, including split printing where you can determine different colors for the shadows, mid-tones, and highlights all at once.

If you're interested in QTR, check out the website to see if whatever printer you get is supported. (www.quadtonerip.com)

[gnuyork]

I use Epson. Currently the R2400.

If you go Epson and want to do color and B&W make sure you get one that has the K3 inkset or whatever equivalent variation they are doing now. I doubt the 1100 workforce recommendation will give you satisfactory results with Fine Art B&W prints.

[Garen]

Thank you all for your suggestions.

Garen